New Orleans Saints college scouting director Rick Reiprish quickly got the feeling that he was looking at a "special kind of player" when he got his first in-depth look at Texas safety Kenny Vaccaro late last September. After seven more months of exhaustive research on Vaccaro and hundreds of other draft prospects, that opinion hasn't changed.

Reiprish's visit to the University of Texas that day was just like many others that he makes across the country during college football season. He watched tape of Vaccaro and other Texas draft prospects, watched a Longhorns practice and sought opinions from head coach Mack Brown on down to the strength coach.

"He stood out, because you saw him do a lot of different things," Reiprish said when he recently sat down with pro scouting director Ryan Pace to offer a detailed look at the Saints' scouting process. "I think in my report my statement was, 'He's one of the easier safeties to evaluate because you saw him do everything.' Cover, run and tackle players and everything else.

"Looking at the film, he stood out as being an outstanding player. Then you watch him on the practice field and kind of get the feeling that you were seeing a special kind of player at that position."

Reiprish filed the Saints' first official scouting report on Vaccaro after that late-September visit. But it was hardly the last.

Southwest area scout Mike Baugh visited Texas the next week and filed his own report. Then in October, South regional scout Josh Lucas went in "over the top" for yet another opinion on Vaccaro.

Baugh and Reiprish each went back and attended a Texas game. Then the Saints' coaches and general manager Mickey Loomis got involved during the NFL scouting combine, Texas' pro day and Vaccaro's pre-draft visit to the team's practice facility.

Along the way, several little things stood out about Vaccaro - from the way his serious "demeanor" toward football impressed everyone in meetings to the fact that Vaccaro was disciplined enough to sneak in a morning workout at the hotel during his New Orleans visit.

By the time the Saints actually drafted Vaccaro with the 15th overall pick in last month's NFL draft, they had official reports from seven different sources in their file on him - from Reiprish, Baugh and Lucas, from the National Football Scouting service that the Saints and 20 other NFL teams use, from secondary coach Wesley McGriff, from assistant secondary coach Andre Curtis and from defensive coordinator Rob Ryan - plus the opinions of Loomis and Payton, among others.

"So by the end of the day you get a lot of opinions on the top prospects," said Pace, pointing out that some prospects might have 10 or more reports.

For example, Pace himself was assigned to study all of the top offensive tackle prospects in this year's draft after he was done with the bulk of his work on all of the NFL free agents. So Pace wrote a report on Saints third-round draft choice Terron Armstead, one of six official reports in Armstead's file.

In the end, guys like Vaccaro, Armstead and hundreds of others were assigned a "Saints final grade" somewhere between 1.0 and 9.0.

And Vaccaro wound up being the highest-rated player available when the Saints were on the clock in Round 1 - seven months after Reiprish filed that first report.

"There's a lot of people who liked this guy. A lot of people," Reiprish said when asked if there was ever an individual scout or coach along the way who really campaigned for Vaccaro more than others. "Because there was an easy like when you watched the kid play."

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Obviously the Saints knew about Vaccaro long before last September. Texas is one of the nation's premier college football programs when it comes to producing NFL talent, so all 32 teams swarm the place every year. And Vaccaro was a senior who had played since his freshman year, started since his sophomore year and earned a spot on the Big 12 coaches' first-team all-conference roster as a junior.

Lucas, who was the Saints' Southwest area scout until last year, had seen Vaccaro and had conversations with Texas coaches about him over the years.

But with so many hundreds of prospects spread around the country each year, the Saints don't seriously dive into analyzing college players until they are seniors or juniors likely to declare early for the draft.

New Orleans Saints college scouting director Rick Reiprish

"Obviously if you put film on, you're looking at the seniors when he was an underclassman, he might stand out to you. And you'd say, 'Man, that kid No. 4 is a really good player,'" Reiprish said. "And our area guy may go in there and make a few notes on him just in case he does come out (as a junior). ... But for me, I don't really pay attention to the underclass guys until they actually commit to coming out."

The first thorough scouting report on Vaccaro in the Saints' file came last spring from the National Football Scouting service, to which 21 NFL teams subscribe. National Football Scouting employs 11 scouts who cover every football-playing school in the country and produce reports on roughly 1,200 upcoming seniors each spring. They'll deliver this year's reports at the end of this month at their annual combine meeting.

One of those 11 scouts is Saints coach Joe Vitt's son, Joey, who also works as an assistant in the Saints' scouting department. All 11 scouts are affiliated with NFL teams, though they share their information with all 21 member teams. Vitt is primarily responsible for the area including Louisiana, Mississippi and parts of Alabama.

The Saints do their own follow-up scouting on every one of the players discussed during that national meeting. But as Pace said, it does help give teams "an initial blueprint" for which players they'll focus on first.

"The grade by the (National Football Scouting) would say whether I'm going in or not," Reiprish said. "Mike is going in for sure. Josh is going in for sure, too, because of the grade (on Vaccaro)."

Again, players at Texas aren't going to be overlooked. When Reiprish went on his visit, for example, he estimated that seven NFL teams were there on the same day.

But that isn't the case at places like Arkansas-Pine Bluff, where Armstead came from. Or Tarleton State in Stephenville, Texas, where the Saints found sixth-round pick Rufus Johnson.

Those players also happened to be in Baugh's Southwest region. So Baugh went out and did reports on them during the season, in addition to many others.

Reiprish said Baugh ended up visiting 21 schools in Texas alone this past year - adding on from the originally-scheduled number of 16.

"Guys like Rufus Johnson or Armstead, these guys have a hard way to go," Reiprish said. "To be honest with you, the area guy really has to put (himself) on the line to get excited about seeing a guy like that."

At the same time, the area scouts are also risking a lot if they miss on a small-school player.

"You're in trouble if someone comes out of your area and you weren't aware of him," Pace said.

Baugh did make a strong case for Armstead when he took his first in-depth look at him midway through last season. That led to a follow-up visit from Lucas before several more follow-up evaluations after the season.

Baugh is one of five full-time area scouts for the Saints, who also employ two regional scouts that go in "over the top" and Reiprish, who oversees the entire country. They also have a full-time college scouting coordinator, two scouting assistants and Vitt, for a total staff of 12 college scouts. The Saints have three more full-time scouts in the pro personnel department, who also assist in draft preparations.

SHOWCASE EVENTS

After the college season ends, the scrutiny intensifies at a series of All-Star events in January and early February, such as the high-profile Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., and lesser-hyped games like the East-West Shrine Game and the Texas vs. the Nation all-star game.

The scouts will evaluate each player's performance during those practices and games, as well as interviewing every player that participates. Often the position coaches, coordinators, Payton and Loomis will also meet with selected players during the week of Senior Bowl practices.

Vaccaro elected not to participate in any all-star games this year, which often happens with the top draft prospects.

However, every top prospect attends the NFL scouting combine in late February, even if they elect not to take part in the athletic drills. The players' medical testing and 1-on-1 interviews with teams at the combine are two of the most important parts of the entire scouting process.

Vaccaro's performance in the athletic drills at the combine wasn't very special, but it wasn't too bad (4.63 seconds in the 40, a vertical leap of 38 inches, 15 reps in the bench press).

He was more impressive in his interview session with the Saints.

NFL teams are allowed to meet with up to 60 players for 15 minutes apiece during the combine. Reiprish said that a typical interview session at the combine will involve Loomis, Payton, the coordinator, position coach, area scout and himself among others.

It will begin with a few minutes of questions about any possible character or injury concerns, scholastic issues and maybe the player's family or other personal background. Then the talk will turn to football.

"We'll have a video clip set up of each player, and the coordinator or position coach will ask questions or run the video and get in a football conversation with the kid, hopefully try and get a little more conversation on what he knows about their defense," Reiprish said.

Reiprish said everyone in the room with Vaccaro that day was impressed by his seriousness and business-like approach to football.

"I think we all had that same impression that this guy is pretty serious about football," Reiprish said. "It's not just fun and games with him."

"He has a demeanor, just a seriousness, a different kind of demeanor," Pace said. "As soon as he walks into that room, you kind of feel it. ... You'll see it when you deal with him (in the media)."

WINING AND DINING

The Saints got their next look at Vaccaro during Texas' pro timing day in late March. He was unable to improve on his 40 time, opting not to run because of a hip flexor he had suffered in a private workout with another team. But he did perform as well as expected in his individual position drills.

Then in early April, Vaccaro flew to New Orleans for a private visit with the Saints, where he again made a lasting impression on the organization.

The Saints are allowed to bring in 30 players for such visits, which last roughly 24 hours over the course of two days. A typical pre-draft visit starts with the player being picked up at the airport, dropped off at his hotel downtown and later taken out to dinner by a scout or position coach. Then the next day they'll spend a good hour or two with the Saints coaches talking more football at the team's practice facility in Metairie -- and possible doing some drills.

It's not the same lavish treatment that top veteran free agents get when they're being courted by NFL teams - no limousines and posh hotel suites.

But Reiprish was quick to interject, "They eat pretty good."

Vaccaro's meal was with Lucas at John Besh's new Borgne restaurant inside the Hyatt Regency. And the dinner conversation turned into yet another positive for Vaccaro in the Saints' eyes.

"I remember Josh telling me one of the things that stood out with Vaccaro that night was how well he knew personnel," Pace said. "He reviewed every single player in the draft, their strengths and weaknesses, which was impressive to know. His competition, the guys he played against, what exactly they did good or bad. It was like a scout talking."

The Saints were further impressed the next day to learn that Vaccaro woke up early and made sure to squeeze in a workout before heading out to the practice facility.

"One thing that sucks with those visits is those guys are in great shape for the combine, right? Then they fly from city to city and every night they're wined and dined. You're not sleeping a lot. You get these late dinners.

"So if you wake up early and get a workout at the hotel, that tells you something right there."

Contrary to popular belief, Reiprish and Pace both insisted that they never remember using a pre-draft visit as a "smokescreen" to try and make other teams think they like a certain player - or, likewise, keeping their love for a player secret by not inviting him.

Many times, NFL teams will draft players that they didn't bring in for visits. But Reiprish and Pace said that's mostly because they already felt like they had enough information on the player.

"We're not trying to purposely mislead anybody," Pace said. "But sometimes you interviewed a guy at the Senior Bowl, you interviewed him at the combine. Some guys you might say, 'Hey we got this guy. There's no issues with this player. What are we really gonna learn more by bringing him in here?' We'd rather use that spot on another player we want to learn more about."

Once all of the months of practices and all-star games and athletic drills and interviews and visits have ended, teams have about two weeks left to dissect all of their reports and opinions and stack their draft board accordingly.

They'll have daily meetings over that time, where they'll discuss the players -- and how they expect the rest of the draft to play out.

In the end, as Payton said on the night of the draft, the Saints wound up with a "cloud" of four players that they both liked and expected to possibly be available with their pick. Two of them were gone, and two of them remained when the Saints selected Vaccaro - though neither Payton, Reiprish nor Pace offered any specifics on how those players were graded or ranked.

One player who was not in that four-man cloud was Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones, which seemed to disappoint a lot of Saints fans who coveted the college star when he was still available at No. 15.

Reiprish, however, insisted that the Saints did like Jones a lot - and that one of the hardest parts about the draft each year is that "you only get one choice."

What makes the Vaccaro-Jones debate so fascinating is the difference between their college statistics.

Jones led the country with 14½ sacks and seven forced fumbles last year. On the flip side, Vaccaro had just two interceptions last year and five for his career. Also, Georgia had one of the top defenses in the country, while Texas had one of the worst.

But Reiprish said you have to dig beyond the numbers to fairly evaluate a player.

"There's a lot of times Jarvis Jones was put in a position to make the play, whereas Vaccaro was put in a position that didn't necessarily allow him to make the play," Reiprish said.

As Payton stressed on the night of the draft - and several scouts and analysts have echoed since - one of the most impressive things about Vaccaro is that he was often used as a nickel cornerback in the slot, where he matched up against the opponents' top receivers.

He was very successful in that role, while also standing out as a terrific run defender and a hard hitter.

"He covers receivers from the nickel back position like a corner would cover them, but doesn't get thrown at a lot," Reiprish said. "So I don't know how that relates. All I know is that when I watch him move, and you look at that player, you say, 'Wow, that's the kind of movement that you like to see from his position.'

"It's like, when you watch a player on film and then do your interviews with coaches, weight coaches, trainers and academic people, then you put all that together and watch him on the field, you have a feel for the guy. So whether he has a bunch of interceptions or a bunch of tackles, you know what you're looking at to begin with.

"So you watch him play and you watch his production on the field, I don't know that interceptions tell the story of the player."